Archive for 2014 - Page 74

Facebook is great for discovering new and beautiful instruments. Our friend Russ Sargeant posted a picture of this fantastic Anaconda Crusher Standard and I was hooked. Built in England, the hand-crafted bass has some nice curves for ergonomics and aesthetics. The Crusher comes in several flavors, with the Standard version offering all of the most important features in a clean...

Metallica’s Robert Trujillo never met Jaco Pastorius, but like many bassists, Trujillo is a lifelong fan. Trujillo’s ties to Jaco have been growing over the last four years, starting with obtaining Jaco’s famed Bass of Doom back in 2010. Stolen in 1986 and resurfaced in 2006, the bass was the subject of a long and frustrating legal battle before Trujillo...

For Zander Zon’s 50th solo bass video, he went back to one of his favorite movies for inspiration. Zander found the soundtrack for Braveheart to be “amazingly beautiful music”, and arranged the main theme for solo bass. For this arrangement, his bass is tuned B, Eb, Db, Gb.

Argentine bassist Andres Rotmistrovsky and Portuguese singer Sofia Ribeiro have teamed up to create a jazzy-Brazilian album of nothing but bass and vocal music, called . The songs hail from Brazil, Argentina and Portugal, and feature No Treble favorite Rotmistrovsky, who has worked with in the vocal/bass duet form before, with Angela Watson. The sound he and Ribeiro make is...

Q: I’ve been weaving in and out of bands for a few years, since bassists in my town are scarce. But I rarely find a band I enjoy playing with due to either the members’ personalities or the music I end up playing. As someone who wants to make a living playing music, starting my own band – with people...

One of the most popular videos we’ve ever shared is Viktor Lörincz’s “Boomerang,” back in 2011. We even had Stuart Clayton transcribe it. Now Lörincz is back with “Return of the Boomerang,” a bass solo that builds on his previous and most popular video. This one’s got it all: slapping, tapping, chords, and of course, a deep groove.

Meet Harry Ostrem, a busy bassist, educator and (sometimes) Mick Jagger impersonator. He has a great story, as you’ll see. Harry is the No Treble reader in the spotlight for the week of April 21, 2014. Bio: I first picked up a bass guitar in 8th grade and continuously played in rock bands and jazz combos during my high school...

Source Audio has released the Soundblox Hub, a box that allows for linking up five of the company’s Soundblox 2 pedals and saving the settings on each. It utilizes MIDI Program Change and Control Change messages to save and recall up to 128 pedal “scenes” to be recalled later. “For the first time, you can save the state of your...

Today we’re celebrating Charles Mingus’s birthday. Here’s a video of one of my favorite Mingus tunes, “So Long Eric,” taken from Belgium’s “Jazz Pour Tous” TV program in April 1964. The quintet’s lineup includes drummer Dannie Richmond, pianist Jaki Byard, tenor saxophonist Clifford Jordan, and alto saxophonist Eric Dolphy, for whom the song is named. Often, the song is thought...

Yes founder and bassist Chris Squire is in the process of writing his autobiography, with the help of his actor friend Vincent Gallo, according to an interview with BANG Showbiz. They’ve been working on the book for about a year, Squire says. The pair meet and talk about Squire’s life, then Gallo transcribes the conversations. No deal yet exists for...

Alusonic Aluminum Instruments has teamed up with Italian bassist Alberto Rigoni to present the Alusonic Alberto Rigoni Hybrid signature bass. The bass is a take on the company’s hybrid blend of aluminum and wood construction and features an alder body topped with aluminum. “As many bass players, I’m affected by GAS but I’m also pretty eclectic – I’m always looking...

There are a number of things than can adversely affect a bassist’s tone when they are using the bow. For example, failing to move the bow parallel to the bridge will cause impurities in the tone. Too much, or too little, rosin can cause problems. So can worn out bow hair or an improperly tightened bow. Beyond moving the bow...